Gordon Campbell - Latest News [Page 1]

S o…. we’re 72 hours into this journey into deep space after dropping the rocket
that took us out of earth orbit (adieu, John Key) and we’re taking stock of who’s
on the flight deck, and whether any warps in the space/time continuum (like Jonathan ... More >>

T>he resignation of John Key is one thing. The way that Key and his deputy Bill English
have screwed the scrum on the leadership succession vote (due on December 12) is
something else again. It remains to be seen whether the party caucus – ie, the ... More >>

W ithout much coverage at all in the West, India has just been engaged for the past
few weeks in one of the world’s biggest socio-economic experiments since the Cultural
Revolution in China. With only four hours warning on November 8, Indian Prime Minister ... More >>

Safe to say that no-one, but no-one has had a better 2016 than Vladimir Putin. What
an annus mirabilis it has been for him. Somehow, Russia got away with directly interfering
in the US election process, such that a friendly oligarch that Putin can do business ... More >>

New Zealand likes to think we played ourpart – via the 1981 Springbok tour –
in bringing the apartheid regime in South Africa to an end. Cuba played a far, far
more substantial role. That’s why South African president Jacob Zuma treated the ... More >>

W e all supposedly agree that the media is going to hell in a tabloid handbasket,
but the trends to the contrary can be a bit harder to spot. In his 1970s book The
Right Stuff , Tom Wolfe had mocked the way the media instinctively acts as what he ... More >>

As the immediate task of repairing and re-opening SH1 north and south of Kaikoura
begins, the configuration of rail, road and shipping likely to emerge in the longer
term, post earthquake, still remains opaque. According to Rail and Maritime Union ... More >>

L ong before the earthquake hit, the dodginess of the government tax cuts programnme
was evident in the language of its packaging. It is being touted as a “tax cuts
and family care” package. Yes, this $3 billion election bribe is going to be packaged ... More >>

A s APEC leaders get together this weekend in Peru, they could be forgiven for looking
back nostalgically at Barack Obama’s time in office and wondering whether the world
will ever be quite so safe and prosperous again. Because if anyone can further bankrupt ... More >>

If Bob Dylan owned the 1960s, Leonard Cohen was an inescapable presence during the
early 1970s period, pre-disco and pre-punk. There were a lot of 3am moments during
that era when, after the lovebirds and the lightweights had gone home, someone – ... More >>

T he ghastly likes of Marine Le Pen in France and Geert Wilders in the Netherlands
have already hailed the Trump triumph as an inspiration for Europe, and for the entire
globe. Racist xenophobes of the world unite, because its now our time! More >>

W ell um.. on the bright side, there (probably) won’t be a TPP. In fact, you could
argue that the cheerleaders of free trade have now succeeded in delivering the planet
into the hands of someone who believes in the unlimited use of American military ... More >>

O nce again at the business end of a US election, the result will hinge on the same
old bits of geography as always: the Five Crucial Counties in Ohio, the Two Crucial
Counties in Pennsylvania and the I-4 Interstate Corridor in Florida that runs from ... More >>

Here’s a somewhat scary headline from October 30 on Nate Silver’s 538 site,
which summed up the statistical factors in play at that point : “The Cubs Have
A Smaller Chance Of Winning Than Trump Does” More >>

Sorry. I know that the TPP is the reggae of political issues…in that it can be
endlessly boring, samey sounding and obsessed with the same things ( Jah, ganja and
investor state disputes) but believe me, there are some fascinating bassline variations ... More >>

I t has been a rough week for anyone who believes in civil liberties. Apparently,
the Police have deliberately abused the powers of detention they possess under the
Land Transport Act (ie to promote road safety) in order to set up a bogus breath ... More >>

A t this time of year, a lot of New Zealanders tend to bemoan the increasing popularity
of Hallowe’en. They regard it as an alien, commercialized American import with
no real connection to this country – even though, thank goodness, Hallowe’en ... More >>